Samsung Investing $4.3 Billion Towards Greener Gadgets

Now there's the kind of commitment we like hearing from a gadget company. In its Eco-Management 2013 report, the South Korean company Samsung says it is investing $4.3 billion in greening its gadgets and its facilities by, you guessed it, 2013. That's a whole lot of pocket change to be thrown into positive change.According to Reuters, Samsung will put $2.5 billion toward greening its gadgets, including cutting standby power consumtion of its electronics by 50% and finding recyclable and organic materials for making gadgets from laptops to cell phones. We'd love to see even more commitment, for instance finding not only better recyclable materials, but using recycled materials as well - big difference!

The company will also invest $1.8 billion in cutting greenhouse gas emissions from Samsung manufacturing plants by 50%, and cutting total indirect greenhouse gas emissions from all products by 84 million tons through 2013. How exactly they're measuring that, we aren't sure but that will make the difference in actual improvement versus stated improvement.

Greener, not green, but still, all improvements are worth noting as they raise the bar that much higher for all electronics companies.

"This eco-management initiative will encompass all of our global operations, supply chain, and the complete lifecycle of Samsung products, and by achieving these goals we aim to lead the way in tackling the environmental problems that are facing our planet," Samsung Electronics' vice chairman and CEO Yoon-woo Lee said.